HarmonyOS Next Development Experience: Features, Differences from Android/iOS, and WebView Implementation

1. Introduction

At the 2023 Huawei Developer Conference (HDC.Together), Huawei announced HarmonyOS Next for developers, followed by a beta release in June 2024 and a commercial consumer version later in the year. Zhaozhuan began development in February 2024 and released the first HarmonyOS Next app version on June 4.

The development process included familiarization, infrastructure building, requirement definition, implementation, testing, bug fixing, performance tuning, and launch.

2. HarmonyOS Next Feature Overview

2.1 Distributed Technology

HarmonyOS Next supports powerful distributed capabilities, enabling seamless cross‑device collaboration without the user needing to notice device differences, a feature not fully available on iOS or Android.

2.2 High Performance & Low Latency

It uses a lightweight microkernel design, contrasting with iOS’s hybrid XNU kernel and Android’s modified Linux kernel, offering higher performance and lower latency for multitasking and device responsiveness.

2.3 Adaptive UI Framework

ArkUI and ArkTS provide an adaptive UI that works across various screen sizes and shapes, delivering a consistent user experience.

2.4 Multi‑Device & Multi‑OS Support

HarmonyOS Next runs on phones, tablets, wearables, and smart home devices, unifying the ecosystem through the SysCap capability set.

2.5 Enhanced Security

The platform addresses common app security issues (malicious apps, data theft, ad injection, vulnerability exploitation, piracy) by enforcing quality control, secure data authorization, restricted system function access, vulnerability mitigation, and digital rights protection.

3. Differences Between HarmonyOS, Android, and iOS

3.1 Language and Toolchain

HarmonyOS development uses ArkTS, a superset of TypeScript, with DevEco Studio (based on IntelliJ IDEA) as the IDE. Package management resembles npm via ohpm, and device interaction is handled with the hdc tool, similar to Android’s ADB.

3.2 Development Experience

ArkUI offers a declarative UI model comparable to Flutter or SwiftUI, making component naming and state management familiar to developers from other platforms.

3.3 Resources and Community

While Android and iOS have extensive documentation and open‑source ecosystems, HarmonyOS resources are mainly official guides and examples on Gitee, with community discussions primarily on Huawei forums and internal issue‑tracking systems.

4. Practical Lessons Learned

4.1 Comparative Learning

Understanding HarmonyOS concepts such as the Stage model, AbilityStage, WindowStage, UIAbility, and ExtensionAbility is aided by analogies to iOS UIViewController/UIWindow and Android Activity/Service.

4.2 Project Management and Risk Mitigation

Early planning addressed third‑party SDK gaps (e.g., WeChat, Alipay) with Plan B solutions, managed limited test devices by mocking HarmonyOS behavior on Android builds, and coordinated cross‑team schedules to maximize device availability.

4.3 Close Collaboration with Huawei

Frequent communication with Huawei partners helped resolve routing vs. navigation decisions, enterprise distribution setup, and the transition to security controls for permissions, ensuring compliance and timely bug fixes.

5. HarmonyOS WebView Development

The WebView architecture follows the existing unified model, with core implementation, JSBridge, security layer migration, and Hybrid API support. HarmonyOS Next uses ArkWeb, a Chrome 114‑based engine, and developers can check compatibility via caniuse.com.

5.1 Scope Definition and Planning

By analyzing recent URL call logs, the team identified active APIs, categorized them as directly supported, recommended new solutions, or unsupported, and defined the V1 WebView feature set accordingly.

5.2 Performance Considerations

Existing Hybrid performance optimizations (offline packages, pre‑rendering, pre‑fetching) from Android/iOS have yet to be fully applied to HarmonyOS, representing a future focus area.

6. Future Plans

The team will continue to align features with Android and iOS, enhance native and WebView tooling, improve performance, and explore innovative scenarios such as meta‑services and intent recommendations within the Zhaozhuan app.